Gregori wins a shootout over Enochs in CCAL opener
The Gregori and Enochs offenses had no trouble putting points on the board in the Central California Athletic League opener Friday night. The Jaguars and Eagles combined to score 109 points.
Gregori came out on homecoming and played hungry, going up by 20 points heading into halftime on its way to a 61-48 win.
“We played some pretty tough teams in nonleague and that was all preparation for this moment,” Gregori head coach Lamar Wallace said. “Everybody’s zero and zero going into league.”
The Jaguars (3-3, 1-0 CCAL) took advantage of defensive lapses early. After being forced to punt on their first possession of the game, they scored on the next six straight over the first and second quarters.
“Stay calm and don’t try to do too much,” quarterback Cruz Marines said on what he tells the team when the offense starts scoring. “Little adjustments (are) important but all I tell them is to keep their composure. Keep our foot on the pedal and it works out from there.”
Marines went 9 for 11 for 200 first-half yards and four passing touchdowns and ran for 76 yards and two touchdowns, helping the Jaguars to a 41-21 lead.
“We knew that he’s a scrambling quarterback, and he gets a lot of his passing off for scrambling,” Enochs head coach Tracey Traub said. “We coached our DBs that you cannot leave your man when he scrambles and we just did.
“Too often we saw him scramble and we tried to come up, make plays and let receivers behind us, and you just can’t do that with an athletic quarterback.”
Enochs (4-1, 0-1 CCAL) made things interesting in the second half.
Keith Orona ended a four-minute drive by connecting with Isaiah Toma from five yards out and after a Marines touchdown, completed a 63-yard pass to Yomi Babalola to cut the Gregori lead to 48-34.
With Gregori on its own 41 yard line, the Eagles forced a fumble. Kola Babalola ran for a 45-yard scoop-and-score, cutting the Jaguars’ lead to just seven points with 11 minutes, 17 seconds left in the game.
Kola Babalola scored on a fade to the corner of the end zone but Elijah Montez put the game away for Gregori, returning the ensuing kickoff 80 yards.
The Jaguars’ 61 points almost beat the school record of 63 on Sept. 14, 2018 in a 63-7 win over East Union.
For Enochs, the loss marks the end to its perfect start.
“It’s just one game,” Traub said on his mindset after the loss. “We’ve got four more to go and play. We’ve got some things we’ve got to solve … but we come back Monday and we start again.”
The Eagles are chasing their first playoff appearance in 10 years.
Gregori plays Modesto High (2-4, 0-1 CCAL) on the road next week.
Enochs will look to bounce back as it travels to Pitman (1-4, 0-1 CCAL) on Friday.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 6:19 AM.
